The death of the postcard?

The poll, commissioned by O2 Travel, also found that nearly half of British holidaymakers (45 per cent) have never sent a traditional postcard, while more than half of travellers under 24 years of age would not even consider sending one.

Around half also said they had not received a postcard so far this year.

It does not mean that travellers are no longer staying in touch with friends and family during their break, however. The majority of those who took part in the survey said that they keep in constant contact with home using other means, and just one per cent said they would cut off all contact with friends and family while on holiday.

Text messaging is currently the favourite method of communication, with 60 per cent of those surveyed using SMS to contact friends and relatives, followed by telephone calls (39 per cent), social networking sites such as Facebook (34 per cent), and emails (29 per cent). Sending a traditional postcard was the least popular way of staying in touch.

Mobile internet usage by UK holidaymakers is currently growing by more than 100 per cent a year, with many of those surveyed saying that postcards were too slow. Others stated that finding a post box and stamp was too much hassle, whilst eight per cent said they were worried about having their writing visible to the postman.